Americas (cWOD)

The Americas, or just America, known as the Western Hemisphere and the New World, comprise the totality of territories in North America and South America. Along with their associated islands, they cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area and 28.4% of its land area.

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Few records survive of any pre-Columbian vampiric population in the Americas, but it is certain that they existed there. Methuselahs like Mictlantecuhtli prove the existence of Gangrel and Nosferatu as native Clans, although few original lineages are identifiable. Bloodlines like the Tlacique are among the few original that survive. Within the Aztec Empire, the fresh arrived Sabbat met terrible creatures that profited from the bloodshed, called Huitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca, Toci and Tlaloc, and underwent great pains in destroying them or sealing them away.

In the modern nights, the Americas are the main battlefield in the sect war. Central America is the heartland of the Sabbat while the Caribbean are predominantly either Sabbat or Setite influence. South America is a colorful mix between Camarilladomains, Sabbatdioceses and cities claimed by the Independent Clans like the Giovanni and Followers of Set. North America was, until recently, home to the Anarch Free States on the West Coast of the USA, but these have dissolved when the Kuei-jin landed. Still, the Anarch population within the New World is generally higher than in the Old World (or simply louder about it). Camarilla and Sabbat battle each other over control over major North American cities, resulting in the last exchange of blows when the Camarilla took New York City and the Sabbat Atlanta. Aggression between both sects is extremely high during these nights.

The Americas (called the Pure Lands by the original three Tribes) have always been somewhat closer to Gaia, thanks to the influence the local Fera wielded among their Kin. Only few cities dotted pre-Columbian America and so, breeding grounds for Banes were harder to come by, leaving the Fera to deal with the truly terrible beasts of the Wyrm.

The arrival of the Europeans (dubbed Wyrmcomers by the natives) brought many changes. First, vampires, Banes and other wyrmspawn engulfed the lands, festering, while the European Garou saw that the natives were helpless against the tides of corruption that arrived with them and focused on taking Caerns for “safeguarding” from them. The Second War of Rage saw the end of the Camazotz and the fall of Bat to the Wyrm. It took the sacrifice of the Croatans to seal the Eater-of-Souls and the rising of the Storm-Eater to force some modicum cooperation between the Garou and even today; these scars are not as cleanly healed as some would like to believe.

1.75 million years ago -100,000 years ago: The Ice Age. Gaia attempts to root out Wyrm-corruption on her body by using glaciers. It is not as effective in Eurasia as it was in the Americas, as the Wyrm had no direct access to the Western hemisphere.[1]Finger Lakes of upstate New York are, according to Garou formed when Gaia reaches down, scoops out corruption from the area, and sanctifies it.[1][2]

20,000-30,000 years ago: Wendigo, Uktena, and Croatan cross the Bering Land Bridge with early Amerindians.[3] It appears to them after they had been lead to East Asia by Gaia and prayed for guidance. Wyrm creatures try to follow them, but the bridge breaks and falls into the sea, taking them with it and isolating the Americas from Wyrm influence.[1] The Three Brothers build a sacred mound where the bridge was and destroy most of the remaining corruption in the Americas.[1] The Garou leadership serves to lessen the Delirium in Amerindians.[1] Inuit peoples cross in two waves cross after the bridge refreezes, and remain in Northern Canada and Alaska to maintain the wards keeping the Wyrm out.[1] The totem of the Wendigo changes from Sasquatch to Wendigo.[4]

13000 BCE: A group of Paleo-Indians hunt mastodon, bison, woolly mammoth and caribou in the Las Vegas valley.[5]

August 13, 3114 BCE: According to the Mayans, a "creation event" happens on this date. Their Long Count calendar counts the number of days from this date.[6][1] NOTE: The Long Count calendar begins counting from August 11th, not August 13.[7] We have let this stand as-is, assuming the Mayans did things slightly differently in the World of Darkness.

986: Bjarni Herjulfson, a Viking Kinfolk of the Corax, gets lost, and sees the New World for the first time, although he does not disembark. He does inform the Corax of what he has seen, however. [14]

900 CE: Sometime during this century, a Viking settlement is established somewhere on the island of Newfoundland, and a few Fenrir made the journey as well. Conflict quickly arose between the Fenrir and native Garou, and the settlement didn't last more than a few decades. Stories say that some of the Get remained and bred into native populations, giving rise to Ymir's Sweat.[15]

11th century: Classical period of Guatemalan Mayan city-states ends, having begun in the 500s. Some of the “gods” to whom blood was given may have been vampires. Other city-states revere BalamBastet.[12]

1002Leif Ericson’s navigator, a Corax named Einarr Flies-Like-Smoke, joins Ericson’s expedition in order to steer him away from the Pure Lands, at the behest of the New World Corax. However, a storm forces him to steer the ship to the safety of American shores. Einarr eventually feels that he has no choice but to help Ericson, who eventually visits the areas that Bjarni Herjulfson described. Ericson returns home a hero, but Einarr is derided among the Corax for his failure. [14]

1150: The Anasazi civilization suddenly vanishes, all of them having Ascended.[16]

1492: Christopher Columbus arrives in Hispaniola, starting one of the greatest massacres the world has seen.[48][49] His flagship, the Santa Maria, is a blend of caravel and carrack called a nao.[50] The Conquistadors start to conquer the Americas. Wyrm influenced Conquistadors plunder gold of South American empires, as this symbolized the corruption of the purity of the Americas.[51]

1500s: Second War of Rage begins in the New World. Old World Nagah immigrate to the Americas and find Nagah already there, to their surprise. Zuzeka forms.[52]

July 17, 1579: Sir Francis Drake comes ashore at a strange land, and claims it in the name of Queen Elizabeth.[61]

1587: John White settles Roanoke Island with 120 men, women and children from Plymouth, England. White leaves the colony in autumn to return to England for more supplies and colonists, but is held up by the Spanish Armada.[62]

1589: The Croatan and their Kinfolk sacrifice themselves to banish the physical manifestation of Eater-of-Souls at the English colony of Roanoke. [58][63][11] The entire tribe is destroyed, as well as the colony. The name "Croatan" is left etched on a Glade Child tree.[59] The Wendigo blame the Uktena for not coming to the aid of the Croatan, the Uktena claim that they did not know what the Croatan were planning to do.[64]

1590: John White returns to his colony on Roanoke Island. The colony is deserted, the colonists vanished. The only clue is the words "CROATAN;CRO" carved into the surrounding trees.[62]

1600s: The Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga and Onondaga nations unite to form the Iroquois Confederacy.[65]

1600s: It's unknown whether life-mages came to North America with the pilgrims.[13]

1600: Balam legend states that by this time the two tribes of Bastet that called the jaguar kin, the Olioiuqui and Hovitl Qua, have been reduced to such small numbers that the two are nearly extinct, and so forced to join into one tribe - that of the Balam.[69]

1604: Samuel Chaplain founds Acadia in Nova Scotia. Some Canadian Silver Fangs later claim that their ancestors arrived in Canada at this time, but the other tribes doubt this. [12]

1609: Henry Hudson's expedition for the Dutch East India Company explores the area that will become New York City. While no Kindred are present on the voyage, at least some are likely involved in bankrolling it through the Muscovy Company.[71]

1664: English settle in New Amsterdam. Connecticut's governor orders them to live in peace with the Dutch. New York flourishes as a multicultural haven, mainly because of Gaian energies in the area.[76]

1700s: The Dreamspeakers have so splintered in their relations with racist Traditions that by this time fully half of them have returned to their native peoples. This schism results in the demise of many Dreamspeakers, and a rift between Tradition and Council that will not be fully healed even three centuries later.[81]

1784: Wyrm agents plan to disrupt Native American burial sites in the name of science. Thomas Jefferson, despite being hated by the Wyrm, falls for the scheme and initiates the first excavations. Some defiled sites set Wyrm-beasts free. [59]

December1811: The Missouri Valley experiences the first of three earthquakes, which temporarily reverse the flow of the river. The earthquakes are the Reality Coders' first experiment with Reality 2.0, and a failure.[109]

1838: As thousands of their Cherokee Kinfolk are forced out of Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina, many Uktena leave with them. In doing so, they leave many caerns behind unguarded, rather than allow the European Garou that remained to have them. Presumably the removal of the other major nations of the south – the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole – throughout the 1830s sealed the tremendous loss of Kinfolk that the Uktena suffered throughout the Eastern US.[122]

1838: During this forced removal of most of the Cherokee Nation, an Uktenawerewolf named Singing Water and guardian of the Mammoth's Bone, a tremendously powerful and ancient fetish, dies protecting her Kinfolk; before her death she manages to impart the artifact onto one of her Cherokee Kinfolk and give him a brief history of the fetish and the charge of eventually getting it back into the hands of the Changing Breeds.[123]

1840s: Mormon missionaries traveling from Salt Lake City to southern California stop so frequently at Big Spring that Brigham Young sends William Bringhurst and 30 other young men to colonize the area. The native Paiute are generous, yet unhelpful.[124]

1845-1849: The Potato Famine strikes in Ireland; FiannaKinfolk are among the many who flee Ireland to escape the famine and suffering there. In addition, the virulent spread of the blight is accompanied by a thick miasma in the Umbra that would cast spirits into Slumber should they come upon it. The exact nature of this Umbral fog is still a mystery.[129]

1847: Bringham Young leads the Mormon people into the Great Salt Lake valley.[128]

1856: The New York City government sets aside an 800-acre area on Manhattan Island for a park, reasoning that the area was impossible to bring business into. This same area had been the site of an Imperial Moot a year before, and had in fact been turned into a caern.[134]

1861-1865: American Civil War erupts from centuries of plotting by Wyrm. This diverts Wyrm’s attention from the Native Americans, who start to solidify holdings in the North. Wyrm has U.S. government send smallpox infected blankets to the Natives, killing them in droves. Wyrm spirits of sickness also decimate Natives. [59]Bone GnawerAuntie Mame spies for the North.[136]

1863: The US Cavalry attempts a massacre of a meeting of Dreamspeakers. This is the first and last time such an attack is made, but Dreamspeaker elders continue to be on the lookout for another ambush.[139]